Prologue

Ten Years Ago

Rain lashed violently against the glass of the Principal's office, blurring the world outside into grey streaks.

Zeida Cross sat perfectly still, a cold, sharp smile anchored to her face. Across the cluttered desk, the principal's fingers trembled as he held up a tablet. The video looping on the screen was devastatingly sharp. It captured Zeida behind the school gym, sliding a heavy duffel bag to a local dealer in exchange for a thick band of cash.

"This is a setup," Zeida insisted, her voice dropping into a well-rehearsed, innocent tremble. "I already told you, sir. It was Xavier and his crew. Everyone knows his brother overdosed, they're just pinning this on me because I threatened to expose them."

The Principal didn't look up. He simply tapped the screen, freezing the frame directly on her face.

"The guards already cleared out your locker, Zeida," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "The narcotics were exactly where the tip said they'd be. The police are downstairs."

The smile vanished. Her expression hardened, eyes narrowing into slits of pure ice. "Who sent you that video? Someone was tracking me. Who was it?"

"That information is confidential," the Principal replied, finally looking at her. "The informant requested anonymity, and I intend to honor that. You are being expelled, Zeida. And arrested."

Right on cue, two officers stepped into the room. In that heavy silence, Zeida realized her elaborate plan to dismantle Ethan, Xavier, and the rest of them had shattered. She was trapped.

She didn't shed a single tear as the steel links of the handcuffs clicked shut around her wrists. Instead, her gaze drifted past the officers, staring through the high window into the stormy courtyard.

Through the sheet of pouring rain, she couldn't see the quiet shadow standing in the darkened hallway across the quad. She had no idea Vivienne Sterling was out there, pressing a smartwatch tightly against her chest, breathing a sigh of relief because she had just saved the boy she loved from ruin.

But Zeida felt the sting of the betrayal anyway.

As the officers escorted her down the echoing stairwell, a sharp, unhinged laugh tore from Zeida's throat. The sound echoed unnaturally through the empty corridors, a declaration of absolute malice.

"I will find you," she muttered against the cold glass of the cruiser window as the door slammed shut. "Every single one of you."

Two days later, Zeida took her own life inside a bleak, grey cell. But her malice didn't die with her; it lingered in the shadows, waiting for the perfect night to restart the game.